Archive for June 2002

7 June 2002

Local government workers: Vote Yes For Action!

UNISON'S BALLOT of local government workers in England and Wales opens on 10 June. The other unions involved, TGWU and GMB are balloting their local government membership separately around the same time

7 June 2002

Blunkett's New Attack On Asylum Rights

HOME SECRETARY David Blunkett has announced two additions to the Asylum Bill currently going through parliament, which are a major attack on the rights of refugees seeking asylum in Britain

7 June 2002

Drugs Policies Still Aren't Working

IN THE first in a series of articles on crime and related subjects, MIKE FORSTER looks at the question of drug abuse:

7 June 2002

Kashmir conflict: Capitalist Crisis Threatens Nuclear War

The world is nearer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, writes Lynn Walsh

7 June 2002

PCS: Defend Union Democracy

IN THE High Court on 31 May, a judge ruled that the election of Mark Serwotka as general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) was legal and that the union executive's actions to remove him were illegal

7 June 2002

Kashmir: On The Brink Of A Catastrophe

FACED WITH a potential nuclear war between regional rivals Pakistan and India over their Kashmir conflict, the Western powers, Russia and China are attempting to de-escalate tensions

7 June 2002

Kashmir conflict: Workers' Unity to Stop Nuclear Threat

Exclusive report from Kasmiri socialist: KASHMIR, INDIA and Pakistan stand on the edge of a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. Two unstable capitalist regimes with nuclear weapons threaten to bring destruction to millions of people

14 June 2002

US economy Recovery, What Recovery?

WE WERE told that the US economic recession was over. Now the apparent recovery is being described as sluggish, fragile, shallow, uncertain or maybe not a recovery at all

14 June 2002

Northern Ireland: A Tinderbox Of Anger

ANY IDEA that the problem of sectarian violence along "interface areas" was something unique to North Belfast has been shattered by the fighting that erupted in the Madrid Street area in the east of the city, writes Peter Hadden, Belfast.

14 June 2002

India/Pakistan Conflict - The Failure Of Capitalism

THE MILITARY conflict between India and Pakistan has brought the two regional capitalist powers to the brink of war, writes Dave Carr.

14 June 2002

General Strike in Spain to stop Aznar's attacks

ON 20 June workers in Spain will strike for 24 hours against the imposition of a law which drastically cuts unemployment benefit, writes Andy Bentley.

14 June 2002

Anti-Capitalist Protest At EU Summit

ON 21-22 June, the European Union's (EU) political elite will hold a summit in Seville, Spain. Outside their sumptuous surroundings, thousands of anti-capitalist protesters will be demonstrating against

14 June 2002

Council workers' pay battle: End Low Pay Now!

COUNCIL WORKERS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are putting pressure on local authorities by announcing a one-day strike on 17 July

14 June 2002

Fight Labour's Big Business Policies

SUPPORT FOR New Labour in opinion polls is sinking fast. It's now at its lowest level since the fuel protests in 2000. Former transport secretary Stephen Byers might have gone, but that hasn't stopped

21 June 2002

Protesting At World Bank

SEVERAL PROTESTS are planned against the World Bank's Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) in Oslo from 24-26 June, writes Trond-Sverre Kolltveit, Norway.

21 June 2002

Defend Asylum Rights

THIS WEEK is Refugee Week. Thousands will be demonstrating in London to defend the right of asylum

21 June 2002

Does The Fall Of The USSR Prove That Socialism Will Inevitably Fail?

What About Russia?: MILLIONS OF people have joined anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation protests internationally; angry at the economic crisis that's wrecking countless lives; at the wars waged by the USA and its imperialist partners, at the oppression, exploitation and environmental destruction of modern-day capita, writes Pete Dickenson.

21 June 2002

German Building Workers Strike

THOUSANDS OF building workers downed tools and walked off sites throughout Germany to demand a 4.5% pay rise

21 June 2002

Hands Off The Post Office

WHEN OUR manager announced the £1.1 billion loss in Consignia and the additional 17,000 job losses on top of the 15,000 already announced, my workmates cheered at the resignation of Chief Executive John Roberts, a London postal worker writes.

21 June 2002

Unison conference: Delegates Back Privatisation Battle

UNISON LOCAL government conference, meeting for two days before the main UNISON conference, saw the leadership overturned five times in the first four hours, writes Bill Mullins.

21 June 2002

Enough Is Enough: Time to fight back!

WE COULD be heading for a "summer of discontent". Public sector workers in particular have had their fill of privatisation, cuts and attacks on working conditions. Many are saying "enough is enough".

28 June 2002

Hands Off Comprehensive Education

ESTELLE MORRIS, New Labour education secretary, has threatened that the "comprehensive ideals" prevailing since the 1960s would "wither and die" if schools did not embrace New Labour's agenda for change

28 June 2002

Israel's Re-Occupation Doomed To Failure

As the spiral of violence in the Middle East escalates, possibly towards a wider war drawing in the surrounding Arab countries, US President Bush continues to show the incapacity of the leading imperialist power on the planet to offer any solution to the conflict, writes Judy Beishon.

28 June 2002

Spain - 10 Million Strike For Workers' Rights

"CERRADA" - SHUT down - was the only way to describe Sevilla on 20 June, day of the first general strike in Spain since 1994. The city was at a standstill

28 June 2002

An Appeal For Socialist Unity

IN THE light of the success of a range of Left candidates in the last local elections, the Socialist Party wrote the following letter to the Socialist Alliance

28 June 2002

Who Can Live On Poverty Pay?

ADAIR TURNER, the new chair of the Low Pay Commission, the body which decides how low to set the national minimum wage, has admitted that he "couldn't possibly envisage" surviving on the national minimum wage level of £4.10 an hour - £164 a week

28 June 2002

Trotsky's Transitional Programme: Winning Support For Socialism

IN THE second article in an occasional series on Marxist classics, DAVE REID looks at Leon Trotsky's pamphlet, The Transitional Programme and how to win mass support for socialist change